Becoming an Open Indie
Following the Open Startup movement, I decided to become an Open Indie.
This post explains what I mean by Open Indie, why I think we need open indies, and potential reasons to become one. I'll share my open statements in a following post.
What does Open Indie mean?
First of all, I did not find any reference for this term before. I am not sure if somebody else coined another one, for a similar concept. If so, please let me know ;-)
An Open Indie is somebody working independently, or at least not solely as a full-time employee, and sharing with the community metrics regarding its income, gigs, and lifestyle. It is of course inspired by the Open Startup movement but applied to individuals rather than startups.
It might sound pretty vague, but that's because it is. The goal is to be as inclusive as possible of all situations. Whether you are a full-time contractor, a TikTok influencer, a dance teacher, or a wannabe 4 hours week worker, you can be an Open Indie
Why does the world need Open indies ?
The freelance market is obviously booming but is really closed at the moment.
The main assumption behind this concept is that both from a producer (the indie) or consumer (the client) point of view, the market would benefit from being more open.
Why becoming one open indie?
As an indie, you might be interested in this Open Indie approach, but not ready to make the switch yet.
Maybe you think that will help you better identify trends in the market, adjust your rate, find prospects or even find new project ideas.
But you might not be yet comfortable sharing your metrics.
That's ok.
First of all, there is no hard list of metrics you are supposed to share. By Sharing anything, you are still more open than most people ;-)
Secondly, by defining some metrics that you share, it will automatically help you track and focus on the ones that are important for you.
Thirdly, this is great content that people will be happy to consume. It will help you be more identifiable, and so find new opportunities.
What do you think?
This could work, but I think you need to consider 2 things:
It sounds like the authors concept of being "open indie" is identical, if not similar, to "building in public". Not sure if the OP would agree with me, but I see a lot of overlap and similarity in the ideas, although perhaps open indie is more general as it encompasses creators of all types.
I think the open indie philosophy suffers from the same pitfalls of building in public. But it's good to be transparent about your early journey, even if its just social proof that your a real person working on a real project and didn't just get on the scene yesterday.